A few miles from the centre of Kathmandu lies one of the biggest stupa’s in the World and the largest in Nepal, the Buddhist stupa of Boudhanath dominates the skyline. We visited it early in the morning, arriving before the main crowds of tourists and spent several hours marvelling at it’s size and peacefulness.
It is believed that the main stupa, which is 118ft tall was built between 590-604 CE, just after the demise of Lord Buddha and entombs the remains of Kassapa Buddha. As legend has it, an old women was granted the permission to build the tower by the king of the time, on an area of ground covered by a single water buffalo skin. So the women cut a buffalo skin in to very thin strands, which when stretched out end to end formed a huge circumference. Construction started soon after with materials of bricks and stones carried to the site by elephants and horses, along with many kilograms of gold, which was used to decorate the holy building. After four years, the old women died having completed four levels of the structure, after three more years her four sons completed the Baudha stupa and remains the largest single Chhyorten in the world.
In 1979, Boudhanath was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and today along with Swayambhunath, it is one of the most popular tourist sites in the Kathmandu Valley.
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